Moscow Named World's Fourth Safest Megacity for Women

Oct. 17, 2017

Zykov Kirill / Moskva News Agency

Moscow has been ranked the world’s fourth safest megacity for women in a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey published Monday.

The survey ranked the world’s 19 largest megacities — cities with a population of 10 million or more — across criteria such as the risk of sexual violence, access to healthcare, cultural practices and economic opportunities. The non-profit interviewed 20 experts on women’s issues in each city and based its results on at least 15 experts in every country.

Moscow ranked behind Paris, Tokyo and London in terms of overall safety, while Cairo, in Egypt, was named the world’s most dangerous megacity for women.

The Russian capital was deemed safest in terms of cultural practices seen as harmful to women. “Women are well protected from potentially harmful cultural practices including female genital mutilation, child, early or forced marriage, female infanticide,” the survey said.

Moscow also scored high in terms of safety from rape or sexual harassment, coming in behind Tokyo.

It placed in the top-5 among megacities with access to economic opportunities, including education, property ownership and financial services. But it scored less well in terms of access to healthcare, a category that includes control over reproductive health and maternal mortality.

The survey was carried out in phone conversations and online between June 1 and July 28 this year.